​Poem as Painting as Painting as Poem, by Lee Stockdale

White Painting, by Robert Rauschenberg (USA) 1951

​Poem as Painting as Painting as Poem
 
Both start out as a blank white canvas,
though a painting can also be on burlap or wood,
blue jean denim or a mannequin with no arms.
I don’t want to make this too complicated.
For our purposes they start with the same blank page,
like rock and salt, like Simon and Garfunkel,
like quantum mechanics and the Catholic Church,
unblemished lamb of innocent white, arrogant, really, 
to try to improve it with words like black ants 
in a line marching right, in Hebrew turning back 
marching left, Pollock splotches, maybe blue, 
maybe red, so many colours the reason artists go mad.
At ten p.m. at the cheap café, painter and poet
with their output of the day. No surprise, 
they’re exactly the same.

Lee Stockdale

​Lee Stockdale’s chapbook, Bronxville, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. His debut collection, Gorilla, was brought out by Main Street Rag in 2022. Published in journals and anthologies, awards include the United Kingdom National Poetry Prize; Whitefish Review 2025 Montana Prize for Humor; Sidney Lanier Poetry Prize; Atlanta Review International Merit Award; and Desmond O’Grady International Poetry Competition Highly Commendable. Readers of Asheville’s Mountain Xpress voted him 2025 Best Local Poet and he currently serves as a North Carolina Poetry Society Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet. His BA is from the University of Washington and MFA from Queens University, Charlotte.